Im no Martha Stewart....

So bright idea Hannah decided that making a gingerbread house would be easy. It most likely would be if you actually had baking experience. A few months ago I posted photos of cookies I tried to make, Ill wait while you go have a look - it will give you some indication of my prowess in the kitchen....

Ok - are you done laughing now? So last night Chris and I got stuck into the recipe. Chris was in charge of mixing the egg/golden syrup and chopping the butter. How he didnt chop up a finger in the process I dont know.... and I was in charge of other stuff. Made the biggest mess possible. Spilt have of the dry ingredient mixture all over the bench top. And spent a good 5 minutes debating the difference between icing sugar and icing mixture. (If any one knows the difference please educate).

The cooking wasnt so bad....It was the assembly that was the downfall. In the end I basically filled in gaps with the icing and stuck a jelly bean where I made a mistake. The end product .....

We also made a little gingerbread house also, which you can see in the background. We are planning on giving the big one to friends of ours. Yes we do like our friends. We cellophaned it up and put lots of ribbon on it....At least they know its home made, because no self respecting bakery would let some thing like this go out in public!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas holidays

Start of the christmas holidays!! It has been a busy year and it has gone so fast.
I have made a to do list for the holidays to do some spring (late) cleaning. I have too much clutter and want to minimise. I started by cleaning out my pantry yesterday - so exciting huh?!?!

So I went shopping instead. I am starting to really dislike christmas. I have only celebrated about 6 christmas' so figured the contempt for the holiday has set in rather early - dont you think?
Reasons im starting to dislike christmas:
1. soooo not like the cheesy christmas special movies/shows
2. present pressure - every one has to have some thing. and it has to be meaningful. and it needs to be bought NOW. and it needs to match the sort of thing they would buy you.....
3. the negotiations for where we will be on the actual day. Mum can only do breakfast - lunch with Chris' parents, dinner with my Aunty....i can see me feeling tired, grumpy and sick at the end of the day....next year im staying home...
4. There being absolutely no significance to the holiday. I feel like a hypocrite. If im going to celebrate it - shouldnt we remember it is marking Jesus' birth!?!

Ok thats my scrooge moment......

So here are some pages I have done using europe photos...


Some trippy photos from amsterdam....
Febo - a fast food vending machine outlet....about one or two people work there and they just put the food into these boxes with a very strong light that keeps the food hot. You decide what you want, put you money in, open the door and take it out.....
Chris and I in venice.....
The Grasshopper in amsterdam...a very big coffeeshop (coffee shops are hash shops..)

CAT!

Just in case Catherine visits her before Saturday.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!!!!

From Chris and Hannah

mwhaaaa!

Advent Calendar

I bought this calendar from target last year on sale. I kept it thinking that I could Alter it some time. Miraculously I managed to get it done before christmas. and with time to buy the chocolates to go into it!

this is what it looked like before......And here is what mine looks like now....

More Europe Photos

Just Uploading a few more europe photos. Cant decide which ones to share and have forgotten which ones I have uploaded! So sorry if there are some doubles.


DH and I on the Gondola ride we took for our anniversary.
A carving in a rock face in Lucerne. It represents Switzerland (the lion) protecting France (the sheild with the France emblem on it) and even if the lion is injured it will always protect France - hence why there is a arrow through the lion but it still has it paw on the sheild protecting it. Unfortunately their was issues with the artist and payment. Thats why the recess the lion is in is in the shape of a pig!!
Canals of Venice!
Crystal wonderland in the Crystal shop in Innsbruck (Austria)
Chris and I at Oktoberfest!
The Hotel we stayed in at St Goar (Germany) with a castle behind us on the hill.
Buildings and statues at Munich (Germany)

finally sat down to..

scrap! Cant seem to get myself to sit at my desk and do some scrapbooking. Youd think that I would be itching to get going with all these photos from Europe! But there is always an excuse. Too hot, Photos in the car, Desk too messy etc.

Well here is one that I manage to commit to and get done. It's a photo of DH and I taken outside the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
And a self taken photo of us out the front of the Lourve, with the glass pyramid in the back ground. If you are a " davinci code" buff - we were standing just on the old rose line mark. I agree with some who say that the pyramid is a bit of an eyesore. It is surrounded by such beautiful buildings and parklands, then there is the glass pyramid - completely different design and seems to stand out like a sore thumb.

We're Home!! (part 1)

We had a fantastic time! I loved it all so much that I didnt want to come home. The tour was great. Our tour guide was fantastic. We made friends with people on the tour, who we will visit again definitely.
I think the highlight of the tour was when Louis our tour guide organised a Gondola ride for Chris and I for our wedding anniversary. Its was so beautiful.
In all we visited: London, Amsterdam, St Goar, Munich (during Oktoberfest!!), Innsbruck (in Austria), Venice and Paris. I know that seems really rushed, but our tour guide was so good that he prepared us for every stop so well that we knew exactly what we were doing and how we were getting there.

Here are just a few of the photos I took:

Night life of Amsterdam. A very interesting city!!

Amsterdam by day. I didnt realise what a beautiful city is was! Canals every where. Every one uses bikes to get around as it is completely flat. There are about 3 bikes to every Amsterdam citizen!

St Goar, Germany. A little village along the Rhine Valley. It was beautiful! A castle on the hill behind us! Chris bought two Beer Steins and we also went for a wine tasting, since the Rhine Valley is well known for their vineyards.
Aaaah, Munich. The city was beautiful and so was Oktoberfest!!! 1Litre Beers. Need I say more!? In the photo is Chris and myself and then another tour couple and then a random german guy, who kept getting in our photos!
The boat ride into Venice. Our tour guide, Louis is behind us. He doesnt look very happy in the photo, but he was definitely a great guy!!
aaah Venice. Loved it sooo much. Even though the San Marco Square flooded past our ankles.
Our Gondola Ride!
Well, this has taken me ages to get done. So This is just part one. I have many more photos to share, so stayed tuned!

so busy

Gosh, Ive been so busy. This is the last week before we go on holidays!! We fly out on Friday! Im way to excited. Its seems unreal that we will be in London this time next week!

So any way, have not had time to scrapbook any thing. though my lovely husband did take me shopping this morning for my birthday and I spent money on new pink pirate paper for the pirates of penzance photos. So hopefully when I come home from our holiday and we settle back into it all, Ill finally have time to scrap.

So the only remotely crafty thing I've done is made my sister her birthday card (we were born 3 years and 3 days apart). Wanted to stay and do more, but just didnt have time.

You have to check this out

This is the funniest thing Ive read in a long time. Have a look at this ebay item and then read the description the women has written about it all.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D130144061675%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1

Artistic mood

A friend of mine turned 40 yesterday. I have made her a mini book using the photos of her birthday dinner.





































































































This is the card I made for her birthday














Some drawings I have done and used watercolour pencils to colour in with.

Mika Brzenzinski

This poor women to have to work with such patronising jerks. I think she did a good thing. The whole Paris thing is pathetic. She went to jail - thats what happens people who BREAK THE LAW. It really makes me wonder why people idolise paris.
Any way - Mika Brzenzinski is my new hero - watch this video to see her refuse to lead with the Paris story over actually news stories such as Iraq etc...

Hi

Hey, haven't posted for a few weeks. Too busy....or too lazy (either one - I haven't posted).

Went and saw the Beauty and the beast musical. It was done so well! For a 'country' (ish) production they were great - and now they have been invited to the gold coast to do 5 shows. they were also invited overseas to do the show - but they couldn't get the copy write to take it overseas.
Meanwhile, rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance has started. I had to go in for some dancing today and I'm a little unsure of it all. I tripped once and almost died of embarrassment. To make things worse, I will be right up the front for this scene - so no hiding behind people or watching others to keep up.

Im on holidays for two weeks now! YAY! Thank goodness, I really need the rest. This term is going to be full on. With Ekka stuff, and the youth display for EKKA with school and pirates rehearsals. But I guess I can handle it since at the end of the term Ill be tripping around Europe!!!

Just a few layouts I completed this weekend after taking up an online challenge to complete a layout that included journaling. I normally don't
journal any photos so thought I'd give it a go. Ended up doing three pages!






































I have swapped places with Chris in the study. Now that he has a flat screen monitor he wanted to move into the cupboard, where we have built in a table and some shelving for my scrapping. So now I have an *entire* room for my scrapbook space. So in the holidays we are doing a Ikea shopping spree to buy a new big desk for me and some storage/shelving. I cant wait to redecorate the study.

Just a few layouts I have done today. Still doing blank baby layouts, not sure what Im going to do with them!

Have finally scrapped a few photos of my SIL's Hens night. We had a poledancing lesson - it was lots of fun, and harder than it looks!!

We have had a very lazy weekend. Chris and I have just been watching movies and playing on the computer. I finally have my laptop up and running fast enough to play world of warcraft - now i just have to afford to buy the game and internet time for it.

Tried to do some cooking - but it wasnt very successful! If you cannot tell by the biscuit - I was trying to cook peanut butter cookies. This is why I dont bother cooking and just go and buy a packet of biscuit. It wasnt too bad if you ate around the charcoal!














Mmmm....Home cooking - full of charcoaly goodness.

Another page for the baby album Im doing.....


















And Im slowly getting around to scrapping all of my SIL's wedding photos. She was married last September, so Im not that late.

A complaint free world

Because of a stomach bug on Tuesday I stayed home and watched Oprah. They had a part on a church that has begun a campaign to help people stop complaining. Basically putting across the message that there are much worst situations in the world - so what do you have to complain about? The Pastor of the church sent out a challenge to his congregation to change their habits of complaining. So he gave them each a plastic bracelet to wear and each time they found themselves complaining they had to change the bracelet to the other hand. The challenge was to keep it on the same hand for 21 days.

Do you think you could do this? I dont know if I could this! The church sends the bracelets all over the world if you wish to order your free bracelet. Though Im sure any bracelet with do for this sort of cause.

http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/

If you think you might take up this challenge, please leave a message and even more importantly - leave a message if you make this!

Hi All,
Hope every ones had a great week. Although it was only a short one here (monday was labour day), it seemed to have gone on forever! Four weeks of the term down and 6 more to go. The end of term does seem to be sneaking up. My seniors have 4 weeks until their exam block! Then there will be exams to mark and report cards to write. sigh.

Have spent the weekend playing world of warcraft (dinged to level 33!), sleeping, watching movies and playing around with my scrapbooking stuff. On Friday night school had the senior ball so went along to that also. It was a 1920's themed ball. Every one got into the theme and dressed up!

Have started to do a few pages for baby album. don't get a shock - its not for me, I was thinking about it for a friend who is expecting.







































Also spent some time making some flowers.















Have a great week every one!